Any way you put it, contend Ronnie Cummins and Ben Lilliston, more and more of it lurks on supermarket shelves – hence their new and cautionary book, “Genetically Engineered Food: A Self-Defense Guide for Consumers.”

Simply written, it shows consumers what brands and foods to avoid and why – and where they can find those untouched by biotechnical engineering.

Monkeying with an organism’s DNA, consumer activists say, goes far beyond redder tomatoes and pest-resistant corn. Potentially, genetically engineered (GE) food can prompt allergic reactions and make people resistant to antibiotics. And down the road, it may even affect human DNA.

Given the choice, surveys show, most Americans prefer to eat foods grown the old-fashioned way – without biotechnical tinkering.

But since 1996, when GE foods and crops began to be grown on a large scale, Americans haven’t had the luxury of choice – mostly because they don’t know what they’re eating.

“Between 60 and 70 percent of all processed food sold in supermarkets contains some genetically engineered ingredients, usually corn or soy, but they’re not labeled,” says Lilliston, a health and environment writer in Minneapolis. (His co-author, Cummins, is a longtime organic-foods activist.)

He says most industrialized countries in Europe and Asia, and Australia – still shaken by the mad-cow disease debacle – are proceeding far more cautiously. They require that GE food be labeled, which marketing studies have shown to be the kiss of death. (“You might as well put a skull and crossbones on it,” one manufacturer quipped.)

As a result, Lilliston says, Campbell’s, Kellogg’s and other major food companies simply don’t use GE foods in the products they sell abroad.

So what’s an American consumer to do?

For starters, says Lilliston, avoid processed foods whenever you can, since they’re most likely to contain GE soybeans or corn. Instead, buy whole foods from farmers’ markets and organic groceries, and look for those products whose makers have pledged not to use any GE ingredients. “Genetically Engineered Food” lists many of them, product by product.

Another thing consumers can do, Lilliston says, is to write letters to Congress and U.S. regulatory agencies, demanding that GE foods be labeled.

“At this point,” he says, “there are no benefits for consumers to eat genetically engineered food. All they’re being asked to do is assume the risks.”

What These Labels Don’t Tell You…

ACCORDING to “Genetically Engineered Food: A Self-Defense Guide for Consumers” (Marlowe & Co., $12.95), the following products have tested positive for genetically engineered ingredients: